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No matter what she did, she was captivating. Satora would never be able to keep her eyes off her. Her toned arms. The way she held herself. Her confidence. Those eyes that never lost their spark. Her perfectly shaped fingers holding the cards. The voice that resonated deep inside her, making her long for her, even when she hadn’t been able to name that feeling yet. But here she was. Standing in front of Abtni, she would lay her heart out in the bare open.
“We have to talk.”
A smile.
“You make it sound as if you’re about to tell me someone’s died.”
“And what if I did tell you that?”
“I suppose I would be sad.”
“Humph.” Insolent as ever. “No, this is nothing of that nature. In fact, it is the opposite.”
“Someone’s been born? Who’re the parents?”
“Are you mocking me.”
“I’d never.” Said with a completely straight face. Satora wasn’t sure if that was better or worse.
“Back on subject.” Satora crossed her arms. “For the past two years I have known you. Thought about you. You’ve destroyed me, you’ve helped me build myself up again. I wanted to destroy you. I wanted you. I desired you..” Satora uncrossed her arms and took a step towards Abtni. “It took me some time to fully understand this feeling. It was nothing that I had felt before. You took this emotion and put it there.” She raised her hand to Abtni’s face, gently cupping her cheek. “I want to devour you. Treasure you. Keep you for myself. Present you to the whole world. What is this feeling if not love?”
“Kaiba…”
“Satora. With you, I don’t want to be the president of KaibaCorp. I want to be the one that challenges you over and over, the one who you’ll focus your entire attention on. Look at me. See me for me.”
“Like Mitoka?”
“No. Differently. Mitoka is family. I want you to be something else.”
Abtni hesitated. Wet her lips. “Like Anji and Yuria?”
Satora held eye contact. “We’ll be different. But the idea behind it is similar.”
“I- This is a lot to process.” Abtni closed her eyes and laid her hand atop Satora’s. “Your words… the things you’re telling me… they’re stirring me up.”
“Abtni. Look at me.” Abtni complied and red met blue.
“Oh.” She exhaled. “Satora, I-” She stopped and instead wrapped her arms around Satora’s neck. “It’s so much. You’re making me feel so much.” She came closer and closer, to the point Satora could see every pore in her skin. And with a final push, she closed the distance between their lips. Satora closed her eyes. One second. Two seconds. Three seconds. The warmth was there. Four seconds. Abtni tasted like nothing. Satora broke away abruptly.
“This is wrong. It’s completely wrong.” Breathing heavily and with trembling fingers, she touched the control panel on her arm. Abtni disappeared. Satora took a shaky step back. Was this really what she wanted? Gage Abtni’s response to her feelings based on an AI with two year old data? Play pretend?
You’re weak, Satora.
A voice in her mind told her. She ignored it. She killed that voice four years ago. She didn’t have to listen to its nonsense any more. She dragged a hand over her face and her expression morphed into something more neutral again. No. She didn’t need the AI. It had proven useless three duels ago. What did data know of emotions.
The data you entered is full of emotions.
This voice was newer. She may not have killed it, but sometimes she wished she had. Because then she didn’t have to face the fact that she hadn’t been able to stop it from leaving. No matter. She left the simulation room. If something is undesired, make it leave. If something leaves that is desired, make it come back at all costs.
“Nee-sama.”
Mitoka had waited for her. She should be in bed. Had she seen her display of weakness? Did it matter if she had?
“It’s late.” Mitoka checked her phone for the time. “You weren’t there for dinner. I brought you some.” Of course. Mitoka liked to monitor her eating and sleeping habits. Who knows when she would have collapsed from pushing herself if it weren’t for her. There were moments however, when she wished Mitoka wasn’t so attentive. She had freed them from that woman so Mitoka could live as a normal kid. As normal as it was possible while carrying the name Kaiba. But Mitoka was too good, looking after her big sister, forcing herself to grow up faster. Satora knew it wasn’t only her fault Mitoka did that, there had been other circumstances as well, but she couldn’t help feeling uneasy about it.
“You didn’t have to wait for me.”
“I thought if I did, maybe you’d feel guilty and start coming home earlier.” That little manipulator. Satora loved her.
“Well you’ve succeeded. I feel guilty.”
“Hooray.” Mitoka eyed the simulation room. “Not guilty enough for you to come home earlier though.”
“Right.” Satora reached for the lunchbox Mitoka had brought. Soup in a thermos, some cold rice balls and omelette. “I will come home earlier when I’ve reached my goal.”
“Yes, yes, I know.” Mitoka blew up her bangs. “I’m just saying. You’re kinda making me feel like I don’t matter enough sometimes.”
Satora was aware of that. She wished she knew how to convey to Mitoka how much she meant to her, aside from telling her ‘I have and will kill for you’. It had taken her long enough to put her feelings for Abtni into words. But those were straightforward. Her feelings for Mitoka were more complicated. There was the time she almost tried to kill her. The time she killed for her. The time she was willing to get killed for her. The time she saved her. The time she admitted defeat just to save her. The weird time after all of that where Mitoka was kind of just following her around like a henchman. And now, when Mitoka was patient with her, tried to get her to live more healthily, when Satora pushed her existence in the back of her mind because the absence of Abtni was slowly killing her. Yet Mitoka still stuck around. If Satora would be in her position, she might have just taken Isono and left. But it never was that simple, was it? Their new relationship still felt fragile, vulnerable, as if it could break any moment. But how to tell her that? She opted to just lean against a table close to Mitoka.
“I’d be worse off without you.” She picked at one of the omelette pieces. “Without Abtni, I feel like something is missing. I’m not sure what I’d do if you weren’t with me either. If your roles were reversed, I’d go just as far for you.”
“Wow, thanks.” Mitoka pulled her legs up on the chair and hugged her knees. “How reassuring. Doesn’t change how you treat me right now though.”
It really didn’t, did it?
“Mitoka.” Satora set down the lunchbox. “I wouldn’t even be here without you. I know it’s not what you want to hear. It’s like I’m saying you’re enabling me to chase after Abtni. But that’s not what I mean. It’s.” She frowned, reaching for the locket holding Mitoka’s picture. “It’s different. You saved me. She saved me. She also saved you from me. I was hoping she’d also grow to be important to you once she’s here with us.”
“I don’t have anything against her.” Mitoka picked at a loose thread at the hem of her sleeve. “I just wish you’d pay more attention to me. I know it’s hard for you to say, but I also wish you’d, you know, apologise sometimes. Just because I don’t bring it up doesn’t mean it’s not an issue.”
Those two little words. What made them so hard to say? Satora didn’t know. It was like her tongue froze in place the moment she’d think about saying them. She had attempted, alone, in her bedroom, preparing a speech for Mitoka, but even that didn’t work out. Actions spoke louder than words, but her actions spoke the opposite of what Mitoka meant for her.
“I’m sorry.” Mitoka’s head snapped up so fast Satora was surprised her hair didn’t smack her in her face. She didn’t say anything, just watched her intently, waiting for the rest of what she was going to say. “When I bring her back… let’s start doing an us day. Weekly. No Abtni. Just you and me. It’s not enough to make up for the lost time, but… I thought you’d like it.”
“It’s a start.” Mitoka slid off the chair she was sitting on. “I’d like the first one to be tomorrow. We’ll start with you sleeping in. Anything below six hours is a no-go. Oh and you’re making breakfast. No staff. Also, no coffee. And for the day after tomorrow…” She hesitated. “I guess you can go get Abtni then, if you want to.”
Satora sighed dramatically. “I suppose I’ll go along with your orders.”
“That’s right, you will.” Mitoka snatched her tablet. “Because I’m confiscating this until the evening.”
A hostage. How fitting. But seeing how Mitoka’s eyes lit up, Satora didn’t mind it at all.
“So… will you really go tomorrow?”
Satora sat still as Mitoka loosely braided her hair. As practical as her high ponytail was, she had to let it down sometimes to not damage her hair.
“Yes.” She tilted her head upwards and closed her eyes. “I will not apologise for that.”
“I don’t need you to. I’m just trying to… be prepared.”
“I will leave. And I will only return when I can get Abtni to come along. It might take a while. But I can promise you that I will return.”
“What if…” Satora could hear the hesitation in her voice. “What if she doesn’t want to come along?”
“She will.” Mitoka let go of the finished braid and it fell against Satora’s back. Satora took that as a sign that she could turn around again. “Even if she may say differently at first, she wants to have a life, a proper one, where she dies of old age instead of something she thinks is her destiny. She just needs to realise it.”
“I guess that makes sense.” Mitoka fiddled with her own freshly braided hair. It had taken Satora significantly longer to figure out how to do a proper braid, but Mitoka had guided her through it. “I’m just scared it’ll take, I don’t know, really long? What if you’re gone for months?”
“Seven days. I will send you some kind of message after seven days. Even if I don’t think it will take much longer, I will tell you.”
“Okay.” Mitokay nodded. “Say… can I sleep in your bed tonight? Because I won’t be seeing you for a while.”
Satora’s stance softened. “Of course.”
“I will hear from you in a week.”
Satora nodded. “In a week.”
“Okay.” Mitoka took a deep breath. “Okay. Until then.”
“Until then.”
She started the motor. Closed the cockpit. Watched Mitoka wave. And then… emptiness. Nothing around her except the force pressing her body into the seat. The feeling stopped as suddenly as it started. The pod skidded to a halt in the sand. Satora took the time to take a deep breath before climbing out. Now it was all on her.
“Kaiba!” Abtni seemed elated to see her. “Just when I was talking about how I’d like to duel again.” The priest on her right side didn’t seem as happy. Satora ignored her.
“I haven’t come for a duel for once.”
“Oh.” Abtni lost a bit of her energy. “Then what did you come for?”
“Precisely one thing.” Satora stopped right in front of the throne without kneeling down, disregarding the glares she got from the surrounding priests. “You.”
Abtni looked at her in confusion. “And you don’t want a duel?”
"No. I have come to take you with me.”
“You insolent- !” Abtni silenced her priest with one raised hand.
“Kaiba.” She let out a nervous laugh. “I can’t just leave. I have duties to attend to.”
“It’s okay.” Satora raised her chin. “I did not expect you to come with me immediately. But I won’t leave until you do.” Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the priest who had raised her voice being held back by her disciple. Abtni stared at her like she had grown a second head.
“Fine.” She dropped her hand. “You can stay. What you do with that time isn’t my problem.”
Perhaps it wasn’t her problem, but it would be her decision.
“We’ll see about that.”
“Kaiba.”
Satora raised her head. She hadn’t expected Abtni to come to her.
“It’s been two days. Are you sure you don’t want to leave?”
“I am sure. Unless you finally agree to coming with me. Then I’ll leave.”
“Kaiba I- I am the pharaoh. People need me. And… everyone here has waited so long to meet me again. I can’t do that to them.”
“Well, they can wait a little longer.” Satora crossed her arms. “They’ll have eternity with you either way. I’m asking for mere eighty years.”
“It’s not that easy.”
“Neither was coming here.”
Abtni went silent. Satora began counting the seconds until she spoke again.
“Why… do you go that far for me? You didn’t even know me that long.”
“Perhaps not.” Satora took her eyes off Abtni. “But what I got to know was more intense than anything else.”
“I almost killed you.”
“So did I.” She looked back at her. Those red eyes full of doubt. The gnawed on lips. She’d have to remind her to use some lip balm, so her lips would be too smooth to gnaw on. “What I’m saying is that, our history is what makes us. What makes me drawn to you. Don’t you feel it as well?”
Abtni didn’t answer, but Satora just continued anyway.
“The pull. The feeling of something missing.” She stepped closer to Abtni, her hand ghosting over her cheek. “The urge to touch.” Abtni stared at her. Just when Satora thought she was getting somewhere, she took a hasty step back and broke their eye contact.
“I have to go.”
That was fine. She had enough time.
Satora couldn’t sleep. She had started to draft a message for Mitoka, but since only four days had passed, she’d discarded it. She should have brought something to keep herself busy. Perhaps she could borrow some scrolls from the library to pass the time. Even if she would run into that priest that had it out for her. Instead, she ran into her disciple.
“Oh!” He almost dropped his scrolls. “It’s you! Kaito?”
“Kaiba.”
“Right. I’m Mereri.”
“Dark Magician Boy, I remember.”
“That’s me!” Mereri laughed. “You studying magic too?”
“No.” As if she’d tell him she couldn’t sleep. “Merely checking what sorts of scrolls you have here.”
“Oh! I’m bringing some to the pharaoh right now, actually. She asked for some stuff in secret.” He made a face as he realised his mistake. “Oh, I shouldn’t have told you that.”
“Perhaps not.” Satora agreed. “Because now I will insist on bringing them to her myself.”
“No.” Mereri hugged the scrolls tighter to his body. “You just want an opportunity to take her away from us.”
“I’m not going to steal her.”
“That sounded different four days ago.”
“I will only take Abtni with me when she agrees to.”
“When. Not if.”
“She will.”
“I know.” Mereri sighed. “She keeps saying she’ll stay here whenever I ask, but you should see her when you’re not around. Maat-Hor says she can’t hear your name anymore. Even if that’s a low hurdle.”
“I imagine.” Satora began taking the scrolls from Mereri. “Even so. You waited three thousand years for Abtni. But don’t you want her to have a full life?”
“I do.” Mereri admitted quietly. “Do your best persuading her, okay?”
“Did you bring my scr-” The words died on Abtni’s tongue when she opened the door.
“I ran into Mereri. Thought I could make the delivery instead.”
“I noticed.” Abtni took the scrolls from Satora. “Well, you delivered them.”
“I actually thought we could talk.”
“We have nothing to talk about, unless it is about you leaving.”
“No, we have something to talk about.” Satora stepped into the room and closed the door behind her. “And I want you to listen.”
“WIll you go back to your room if I say no?”
“I won’t.”
“I guessed so.” Abtni set the scrolls down on her desk. “What is it?”
“Abtni.” Satora took a step towards her. “Ever since you left, I felt like a part of me is missing. It took me a while to realise. It took me even longer to figure out why.” She clenched a hand at her side. “Don’t you feel the same?”
“I don’t know.” Abtni’s voice was quiet. “I’ve never really… felt this way before.”
“Neither have I.” Satora unclenched her hand and held eye contact with Abtni. “But I know it has to be you.”
She could hear Abtni swallow. See her stare right back at her. “Kaiba, I- I can’t just leave. No matter what I feel, I can’t just-”
“Mereri agrees with me.” Satora interrupted her. “He wants you to have a full life too. Don’t you see? They love you. You deserve more than two deaths at sixteen.”
“Does ‘they’ include you as well?”
Satora took a deep breath. It was time.
“Yes. I love you. With all my heart. With all my being. I want you to come with me so we can spend our life together until we are reunited here once again.”
“Kaiba-”
“Satora.”
“Satora.” Abtni repeated. Her eyes wavered. “Satora.” This time, she was quieter. “Satora.” She closed her eyes. Then, almost inaudible. “I’d like that, too.”
Satora crossed the last bit of distance between them. Her hand in Abtni’s neck, her lips met hers. Until you say yes. Until you can’t say no. Until you long for me as much as I long for you. Hesitation, and then. Abtni kissed back. Resting her hands on her chest. The hesitation slowly turning into fervour. Hunger. Until she couldn’t let go of Satora as much as she couldn’t let go of Abtni. Abtni made a sound that sounded half like a sob. Broke the kiss. Leaned against Satora. Breathing unevenly.
“Take me with you.”